"Dean Qian, was this really worth it?"
As Jiang Yang left the Soul Tool Academy with a smile, Fan Yu asked helplessly.
"It was!"
"Why wouldn't it be?!"
As he spoke,
a pained expression had already appeared on Dean Qian Duoduo's face.
"That was one million Gold Soul Coins..."
When Fan Yu said the figure, even the corners of his own mouth twitched.
"Hss—"
"My money!!"
Time flew by.
Before long, the day of the first class arrived.
Each class had around a hundred students.
There were about a thousand new students.
Jiang Yang and Wang Dong had just taken their seats when an old woman walked through the door.
If nothing unexpected happened, this had to be the infamous Zhou Yi.
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Zhou Yi, and I'll be the homeroom teacher for some of you over the next year."
"As for why I say 'some of you,' it's because trash isn't worth cultivating."
"If I find that you're nothing but a useless piece of trash, I'll expel you on the spot!"
As soon as Zhou Yi finished speaking,
she immediately enraged the whole class. After all, everyone who'd made it here was an elite.
At the very least, none of them were trash.
Jiang Yang couldn't understand what gave Zhou Yi, a Soul Emperor who was nearly thirty, the right to insult everyone like that.
"Tell me, during this time since you enrolled, which of you have gotten into a fight?"
"If you've been in a fight, stand up!"
At that,
everyone began whispering among themselves again.
Who got into fights for no reason?
And who would just come right out and tell you they'd been in a fight?
Besides, what the hell did fighting have to do with class?
While everyone murmured, Wang Dong frowned and looked at Jiang Yang, who was sitting beside her.
Seeing him sitting there, lost in thought as if nothing were wrong, she suddenly smiled, and the furrow in her brow eased.
She hadn't liked this homeroom teacher from the start, and she hadn't wanted to draw this much attention to herself, either.
She'd only been worried that Jiang Yang might be a bit hotheaded. Now that she saw he wasn't taking the homeroom teacher seriously, she instantly felt she had someone to rely on.
She couldn't help smiling to herself.
"Not a single person?"
"Are you sure none of you have been in a fight?"
Zhou Yi asked twice in succession.
Her utterly unreasonable gaze swept across the class, pressing down on them with immense force.
"Good! Very good!!"
"Jiang Yang! Stand up!"
"You're expelled!!"
Zhou Yi's furious shout pulled everyone's attention away from their discussions.
After all the gossip over the past few days, even those who'd never seen Jiang Yang knew about his clash with Xu Sanshi, a sixth-year senior.
That was especially true of the students who lived in dorms near Jiang Yang's.
Quite a few of them had even been there in person that day.
"Oh?"
"What gives you the right to expel me?"
Jiang Yang didn't stand. He simply came back to himself and gazed at her calmly.
He'd never thought much of Zhou Yi, and had no interest in listening to her spout those tired old theories.
He'd been mentally working through what he'd recently learned about Soul Tools.
He hadn't expected Zhou Yi to single him out after all.
"Because I'm your homeroom teacher."
Zhou Yi raised her voice another eight octaves, as though that were the only way she could look more imposing.
She genuinely enjoyed bullying students and seeing them glare at her with hostility.
She knew that no matter what their backgrounds were, none of them could shake her position at the academy.
Put simply, she loved knowing that they couldn't stand her but couldn't do a thing about it.
"Heh. You keep threatening to expel people. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were the dean of Shrek Academy."
Jiang Yang merely smiled, still calm.
That nonchalant expression only stoked Zhou Yi's fury.
She felt that Jiang Yang was challenging her authority.
In other words, he was making her lose face.
"I don't need the dean's approval to expel you! Who do you think you are?"
"Now tell me: are you walking out on your own, or am I throwing you out?"
The moment she finished speaking,
Zhou Yi released her Martial Soul.
A massive red dragon's phantom towered behind her, covering half the blackboard.
The six Soul Rings at her feet—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, and black—proclaimed her strength.
"What? A Soul Emperor!"
"Teacher Zhou is actually a powerful Soul Emperor?!"
"This is bad. Jiang Yang might really be in trouble."
"Isn't Zhou Yi going too far? A new student finally dares to challenge a sixth-year student, and she wants to suppress and expel him?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if that old woman came here for that sixth-year student."
"Shh... Keep your voices down..."
"Teacher Zhou, I don't think you can expel Jiang Yang!"
Just as everyone was talking,
Wang Dong, sitting beside Jiang Yang, suddenly stood up.
She said sternly, "How can you just expel a student with such incredible talent?"
"Even if Jiang Yang did get into a fight, you can't expel him just because he won't say anything, can you?"
"I don't think that's a valid reason!"
Wang Dong's words struck a chord with the others.
"I have no need to explain myself to you. Shrek doesn't need students who lie!"
"Since when has strength been the standard for admission to Shrek?!"
"Besides, as your homeroom teacher, I have the right to expel students. If you can beat me, then we'll do it your way!"
Zhou Yi didn't take Wang Dong seriously at all.
At this point, even if the King of Heaven himself showed up, she was determined to save face.
Over the years, she'd expelled who knew how many students.
None had been as difficult as Jiang Yang.
"You—"
"You're saying I lied?"
"So you think I got into a fight?"
Jiang Yang had never been the sort to hide behind someone else when they stood up for him.
He hadn't wanted to deal with Zhou Yi earlier because he knew that no matter how loudly she shouted, she couldn't expel him from Shrek.
So he hadn't bothered arguing with someone as vile as her.
But now that Wang Dong had stood up for him, doing nothing would have been out of character.
He immediately rose to his feet and gently placed a hand on Wang Dong's shoulder, signaling for her to calm down.
"Wasn't it? You fought Xu Sanshi outside the new students' dormitory. Plenty of people saw it. You think I'm framing you?"
Zhou Yi shot back.
"What do you mean, 'fought'?"
"It's only a fight if both sides strike back. Tell me, did Xu Sanshi fight back?"
Jiang Yang's face remained expressionless.
As if they were merely chatting about something ordinary.
But to Zhou Yi, his words grated on her ears.
Because Xu Sanshi really hadn't fought back.
"Good!"
"What a fine piece of sophistry!!"
"But your sophistry won't work on me! Or rather, for your sophistry, I'm expelling Wang Dong too!"
At that,
astonishment once again spread across everyone's faces.
Seeing their reaction, Zhou Yi felt immensely satisfied.
She deliberately adjusted her glasses and shouted,
"I'll say it again: either beat me, or I'll throw you out of Shrek right now!"
"Jiang Yang, Wang Dong, you two dared to challenge a teacher. Looks like I'll have to teach you a lesson, or you'll think all of Shrek's teachers are easy to push around!"
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